The Trinity - Hebrews 10:5

The Trinity

Common
Trinity
Personality
   of the Spirit
Christ
   Preliminary
  Strategy
  Genesis 1:26
  Genesis 3:22
  Isaiah 9:6
  Matthew 1:23
  Matthew 28:19
  John 1:1-3
  John 3:13
  John 5:23
  John 6:33,38,51
  John 6:62
  John 8:23
  John 8:58
  John 10:17,18
  John 10:30
  John 14:9
  John 17:5
  John 20:28
  Romans 9:5
  Philippians 2:6
  Col. 1:15,16
  Eph. 4:8-10
  Hebrews 1:2
  Hebrews 1:8
  Hebrews 1:10-12
  Hebrews 7:3
  Hebrews 10:5
  1 John 4:3
  1 John 5:20
  Revelation 3:14
Soul
Heaven
Hell
Satan/Demons
"Saved"
Baptism
Resurrection
Antichrist

Unique
Catholic
Mormon
SDA
JW
British Israel
Church
of Christ
Pentecostal
Islam

Science
Miracles
Evolution
Creation
Carbon Dating

Inspiration
Partial
Contradictions
& Inaccuracies

1 John 4:3: "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world."
2 John 1:7: For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Problem:: It is argued that these passages support the belief that God has come to this earth in the flesh, and that a Christian must confess that Jesus as God.
Solution:: Only a sloppy and careless reading of 1 John 4:3 would cause a person to believe that this verse supports the doctrine of the Trinity. Note that 1 John 4:3 does NOT say, "every spirit that confesseth not that God is come in the flesh is not of God..." No! Rather, it says that "every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God."; What we must remember is that John had a particular group of individuals in mind - the Gnostics. We therefore should not try to interpret this verse in a vacuum. We have to think about who in his day John was talking about. For many Gnostics, Christ could never be human (flesh) because in the dualist view of the Gnostics the material world was evil and such a divine being could have no true fellowship with a material human body. The Gnostics believed that the Christ appeared as a spirit - with an immaterial body. the Gnostics looked at Christ as an intermediary divine being, and that the ultimate divine being, which they referred to as the fullness, was unknowable. This passage, therefore, was not written to support the Trinity (an unknown concept to John and the early Christians), but rather was written to prevent any Christian from becoming a member in any group permitting Gnostics or endorsing Gnostic understandings.